The Memoir Workshop with Prince Shakur (September 18th to October 13th, 2023)

The Memoir Workshop
With Critically Acclaimed Author Prince Shakur

Explore the Art & Craft of Writing Memoir and Get Extensive Feedback on Your Writing

You are invited to participate in a four week workshop with acclaimed author Prince Shakur.

During this course, you will explore the craft of memoir writing, draw inspiration from literary greats such as James Baldwin, and get extensive personal feedback on your writing.

This course gives you the tools and guidance needed to write a memoir that connects deeply with readers, meets the needs of publishers, and aligns with your personal values.

In addition to the extensive feedback on your work, Prince Shakur will introduce you to the techniques, research strategies, and craft elements that allow a memoir to resonate with readers and publishers, including:

How to structure your memoir so you can tell your story in the most impactful way possible
How to identify the themes that bring your story to life, and make it resonate with readers and publishers
How to write scenes in your life so they live and breathe on the page

You’ll start the course studying James Balwdin, drawing inspiration from his understanding of the artist’s responsibility, as well as the ramifications of sharing one's personal stories with the world.

During the course, you'll also study craft and research strategies from contemporary authors. Aided by this studying, you’ll explore your own personal themes and interests, so you can focus your story for maximum impact, while keeping in mind the needs and expectations of contemporary readers and publishers.

Prince’s debut memoir When They Tell You to Be Good was published by Tin House Books, and widely praised in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, and many other places.

He is a successfully published author, professor, and writing teacher who cares about connecting with students and helping them grow as writers.

Prince is offering extensive feedback on student writing, as a core part of this course. Each week you will have the opportunity to submit work for feedback from Prince. He will give you feedback on various aspects of the writing and planning process, including your proposed narrative arc, artist statement, key scenes, as well as detailed feedback on up to 10 full pages of your story.

The course starts on Monday, September 18th and ends on Friday, October 13th. For those who need extra time, you will have a full six months to submit your work for feedback. You will also be welcome to attend office hours after the course is officially over, so you can stay part of our community. (At no additional cost.)

Because of the extensive personal feedback in this course, enrollment is strictly limited to 22 students. Once the course fills, we will immediately close enrollment.

Enroll Now for ~~$575~~ $497 (Early Bird Tuition)

Meet with Literary Agent Michael Mungiello

Michael Mungiello, of Inkwell Management, will be meeting with the class to discuss querying, publishing, and finding the right agents. Michael represents both literary fiction and nonfiction, including memoir.

This is a unique chance to learn directly from a successful literary agent.

Inkwell Management represents many top selling authors, including many memoir and nonfiction authors. (Including debut authors.)

Michael will be visiting the class in a live Zoom meeting on October 30th, 2pm-3pm ET. You will be welcome to submit your questions ahead of time. The event will be recorded for those who can't make it.

A Four Week Workshop on the Art & Craft of Writing Your Memoir

Explore the art of writing memoir and get extensive feedback on your writing – all with support from a successful author and instructor.

Four weeks of in-depth lessons on the art and craft of writing the memoir
Detailed feedback on your writing from Prince Shakur.
Personal guidance on the process of writing, researching, and crafting your memoir.
Access to live office hours with all of our instructors, even after the course has finished. (At no additional cost.)
Full access to our private community of writers, so you can network with your fellow students.

About Prince Shakur

Prince Shakur is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir When They Tell You to Be Good, published by Tin House Books. The memoir was called "magnetic" by TIME, and reviewed in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other places.

Prince's work has appeared in Teen Vogue, Vice, Outside Magazine, and the anthology It Came From Our Closet, among many other places. Shakur has also been awarded residencies as La Maison Baldwin and Norton Island, and is a winner of the Hurston/Wright Crossover Award.

Workshop Schedule

The course starts on Monday, September 18th and ends on Friday, October 13th, 2023. The course comes with daily lessons you can study on your own time, and interaction with Prince Shakur. Everything is provided online, through the digital learning platform hosted by Thinkific.

Note that you will have up to six months after the course finishes to submit your writing for feedback. Also note that you will have access to office hours even after the course is complete.

Daily lessons, available to study any time on our online learning platform, hosted by Thinkific.
Personal feedback on every lesson via email, our online discussion platform, or our private Facebook Group.
Weekly opportunities to submit your work for detailed feedback from the instructor.

Enroll Now

Enrollment is strictly limited to 22 students.
The early bird tuition is available until Monday, September 11th.

$575.00

Full Tuition

Enroll Now
2 x $248.50

Early Bird Payment Plan

Enroll Now
$497.00

Early Bird Tuition

Enroll Now

Reviews of Our Workshops

Totally appropriate, and exactly what I needed.

Dee Knight

I loved this course. I only wish it could be longer. Every selection was interesting. The writing exercises were provocative and enjoyable. The feedback on my essay submissions were good and useful. I want more!! (That's because the essays I submitted were early chapters of a book manuscript that is under review by a publisher. So any additional help could be very helpful to me.) While Marin's general concept of "the personal essay" doesn't always fit what I'm trying to do, everything she taught was useful to me, and very interesting. It there's a sequel, I would like to sign up!

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Inspiring and Instructive

Susan Cohen

Marin Sardy provides excellent examples and instruction on different essay writing techniques while encouraging writers to share their challenges and fears. Her feedback is tactful and clear, with a keen intuition on where a writer wants to go a...

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Highly Recommend This Fantastic Workshop!

Dana Kinsey

Marin is a gifted and caring teacher, supplying exactly the right feedback to assist in revision. Her honesty was refreshing and her insight was valuable. I never take courses to learn what I'm doing right; I take them to learn the opposite. The pieces she chose as anchors inspired me to reach beyond my current style and really take some risks in terms of content and form. Her suggestions for publishers also proved super helpful. I could say much more, but I think it could be most telling to simply post a link (https://www.prose.onl/read/dana-kinsey) to the first piece I wrote with Marin that was actually published today, one week after the course ended. Without this workshop and Marin's expertise, it would not exist.

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Excellent Introduction to Different Types of Personal Essays

Mary Atkinson

Marin Sardy's Personal Essay Workshop covered so much in a short time. She provided great examples of different ways to approach personal essays along with her insightful comments about them. I especially appreciated her emphasis on each writer's personal process. We write to discover what we want to say and why and then dig deeper in revision. She is truly knowledgeable and passionate about the personal essay. I highly recommend her course!

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The Personal Essay with Marin Sardy

Isa De Quesada

Excellent...when I started I had no idea how to begin an essay and get it published. This course gave me the tools necessary to funnel my writing into an essay form. The structure of the course was incredibly helpful in organizing myself and my wr...

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Excellent workshop

anneke campbell

Marin Sardy's Personal Essay Workshop has been powerful, educational and fun. The workshop is very well organized in bite sized pieces with the right balance of reading, writing and exchange. I particularly appreciate her clarity and the fact that...

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Marin Sardy's Personal Essay Class

Linda Luther-Starbird

I very much enjoyed this class, and I learned that I liked personal essay much more than I had anticipated. This morning I read a review about using personal essay in memoir, which made it all the more interesting. Marin is a very good teacher. She was highly organized, had very useful readings and references for us, and her feedback/critique on my homework assignments was very helpful. I would recommend this class to anyone desiring to learn a new form, or to those already interested in personal essay.

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FAQ

What is the course schedule?

The course starts on Monday, Sepember 18th and ends on Friday, October 13th, 2023. Each week, we will release five lessons that you can study on your own time. These will be a mix of text-based lessons, recommended essays, and pre-recorded lectures. Each lesson comes with text-based discussion with the instructor and the class.

At the end of each week, you will have the opportunity to submit an assignment to the instructor for in-depth feedback.

There will also be two office hour sessions held via Zoom, which will be recorded for those who cannot attend live. They have not yet been scheduled.

Note, that if you fall behind on the course, you will have a full six months to complete the course and submit your work for feedback from the instructor.
How much time will the course require?

Overall, expect to spend around 30 minutes a day on the course. Some days will require less work, some days will require more.

Lessons are released weekly, which gives you flexibility. Based on our experience with other courses, some students do the bulk of their work in one or two days each week, while others spend a little bit of time each day on our courses.
How many students will be allowed to enroll?

Because of the personal feedback Prince is providing, the workshop is strictly limited to 22 students. Once we reach that number we will immediately close enrollment.

Enroll in The Memoir Workshop with Prince Shakur

Enrollment is strictly limited to 22 students.
The early bird tuition is available until Monday, September 11th..

Enroll Now for ~~$575~~ $497 (Early Bird Tuition)

$575.00

2 x $248.50

$497.00